Throwing an unprepared high schooler into a few years of low-level Spanish and expecting proper employment afterward is like throwing an untrained pilot into the cockpit of a plane and expecting proper flight. Sure, at first glance it looks like it’ll be a smooth ride-- enough for someone in charge to miss the obvious problem-- but several moments in and with enough patience to watch the outcome, you’ll soon realize there was never potential for more than a catastrophe. This describes the experience of most language-learning Americans. Whether it was Spanish or Italian, or starting in sixth grade or ninth, the issue is the same. The truth is, more often than not, second language classes fail us. As a result, multilingualism continues to fall behind the growing number of immigrants and international businesses, and yet nothing is done to resolve it.

This is happening because schools across the country are not taking this type of education seriously enough. To solve this issue, all elementary schools should begin foreign language instruction between kindergarten and fifth grade and continue this education until high school. Schools like Charles H. Houston Elementary in D.C. are already ahead on this, and it is time that everyone finally follows suit.

Some imagine that if this was done, the costs would outweigh the benefits. Too much money would be spent with not enough performance improvement. As of right now, according to a study done by the General Social Survey, created by the University of Chicago and funded by the National Science Foundation, only 2.5% of people who took a foreign language class in high school felt that they still spoke the language “well”, and 0.7% “very well”, on a scale from “hardly at all” to “very well”. This may lead you to believe that foreign language classes are not doing their job, and therefore why invest more money? 

This is likely primarily because these people began learning after the critical period for language acquisition, but it goes further than that. Additionally, you must ask yourself how well students retain information from other high school courses, ones that are also widely questioned for their lack of usefulness after graduation. Take, for example, a high school algebra class, where even before they have the chance to try to retain information, many students are already failing. Mathematics as a whole causes twice as many D and F grades compared to other subjects, as a national sample of transcripts found, under an article by The New York Times. It’s not just that math is harder and we shouldn’t expect students to do well; in other countries such as Canada, Finland, and South Korea, students are scoring better on mathematics tests than Americans. Clearly, it’s a problem with American teaching-- not with foreign language classes. 

So, why specifically target them? After all, knowing another language is more important than you might think when applying for a job, and possibly even more so than knowing advanced math like algebra. Researcher Michael Handel from Northeastern University found that 86% of jobs in his study did require addition and subtraction, which are already being taught by kindergarten to early elementary school and are easily retained. But, less than 25% of workers used math more advanced than just basic fractions, and only 5% of jobs required calculus. Meanwhile, the job market is increasingly asking for bilingual speakers. From 2010 to 2015, the demand for them more than doubled, skyrocketing from 240 to 630 thousand job postings. Most of these were for “high prestige” jobs, including financial managers, editors, and industrial engineers. Since then, the demand has only increased. Bilingualism is perhaps one of the most advantageous traits of an employee nowadays, and well worth the money it may cost in comparison to math skills that will never quite prove their functionality beyond graduation.

Now, besides the importance of this education, it would also be a sound investment to begin with it sooner to get enough time actually using the language. To reach “Advanced-Mid” fluency in a level one language such as Spanish, which the State Department recognizes as the easiest level of languages, you need at least 960 total hours practicing it, as Princeton University’s ETS Oral Proficiency Testing Manuel discovered. But, with just a few years of learning in middle and high school, it usually adds up to far less than this (at around 500 hours, give or take). The 960 hours does, of course, include personal study time away from the classroom teaching, but this study time would be much better taken during class independently anyway where it is guaranteed, rather than assigned as homework and then given last priority by overworked students. This means more class time is essential. With all this information, why are we expecting students to graduate being so fluent in another language? It’s unrealistic to expect everyone to make enough progress in that time to know the language well, and based on the study by the GSS, students have learned accordingly. It’s time to actually look at this problem and see what we can do about it, rather than continuing with the same old program and crossing fingers that results will randomly change. Yes, it will be more expensive to start this process sooner and spend more time on it, but if the results improve alongside the expenses, then it will have been worth it. Currently, we are wasting money by paying teachers to do a job that is beyond their ability.

Then there is the matter of the critical language acquisition period hypothesis. Joshua Hartshorne is an assistant professor of psychology at Boston College who conducted the largest language-learning study ever as a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, with a dataset of the grammar quiz results of around 670,000 people. He found that a person who wants to learn a second language as thoroughly as a native speaker would be best starting by the age of 10, which would allow for the same abilities as someone who started speaking that language as a toddler. However, after the age of 10, the ability to learn a second language declines. He also pointed out that while adults were better at picking up the parts of a language short-term in a laboratory setting, this did not at all reflect the results of long-term learning. In short, if children were to pick up second language classes before or perhaps right at the age of 10, they would have much better chances of developing that language and continuing to learn it thoroughly throughout middle and high school. While maybe you don’t need to have the skills of a native speaker to function during your everyday job, having the foundation will make it much easier than simply knowing bits and pieces of grammar that most high school students would then go on to forget, as shown once again by the previously mentioned GSS study. This key piece should be recognized.

This all leaves us with no other option than to start second languages sooner. We must begin to think more critically about the way things are being done and strive to make multilingualism the norm. 

We could prevent several generations’ panic at the thought of an entirely language-diverse job market. People are being robbed of skills vital for an ever-changing world. Take this opportunity to speak out to your school district about the importance of this possible change. Not only will it benefit the children when they go off on their own, but it will develop our society for the better. We have not done enough. We get started now.

Works Cited

Abbott, Martha G. “Beyond a Bridge to Understanding: The Benefits of Second Language 

Learning.” Gale Power Search, 2018, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A543900500/GPS?u=mlin_c_hudsonhs&sid=GPS&xid=e1020c7 5. 

Anne Trafton | MIT News Office. “Cognitive Scientists Define Critical Period for Learning 

Language.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology, news.mit.edu/2018/cognitive-scientists-define-critical-period-learning-language-0501. 

Catherine Snow Professor of Education. “The True Failure of Foreign Language Instruction.” The 

Conversation, 24 Mar. 2021, theconversation.com/the-true-failure-of-foreign-language-instruction-80352. 

“Demand for Bilingual Workers More than Doubled in 5 Years, New Report Shows.” New 

American Economy, 20 Sept. 2018, www.newamericaneconomy.org/press-release/demand-for-bilingual-workers-more-than-doubled-in-5-years-new-report-shows/. 

Ghose, Tia. “Which Jobs Actually Use Math?” LiveScience, Purch, 24 Apr. 2013, 

www.livescience.com/29017-which-jobs-actually-use-math.html. 

Hacker, Andrew. “Is Algebra Necessary?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 

July 2012, www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/opinion/sunday/is-algebra-necessary.html. 

“Is Learning a Foreign Language Worth It?” Gale Power Search, 24 Feb. 2021, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A652904685/GPS?u=mlin_c_hudsonhs&sid=GPS&xid=cb4e2c4f. 

Lewis, Benny, et al. “The CIA Is Wrong: It Doesn't Take 1,000 Hours to Learn a Language.” Fluent in 3 Months - Language Hacking and Travel Tips, 16 Mar. 2021, www.fluentin3months.com/hours-to-learn-a-language/.